HURRICANE BERTHA SWELL IN NAGS HEAD, NC.

August 5, 2014

Bertha became the second named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and would later become a hurricane near the Bahamas reaching max winds in excess of 75mph.  As she began to make her way out into the open Atlantic and begin to weaken those winds had generated a decent swell and waves which moved their way up the east coast reaching the Outer Banks of North Carolina by the evening and early morning hours of August 5th. 

I drove down the morning of the 5th to Rodanthe to see what might be breaking and see if I could find some surfers out.  I was also going to try and catch up with my surf buddy from high school and see if he was going out and I'd shoot some photos of his session.  We hooked up at the Rodanthe Pier but the surf was really too rough.  Waves looked big...say 6-8 foot or bigger at times.  But the sets were close together and there was a chop to the ocean that really made it difficult.  I saw no one out surfing south of the Oregon Inlet.  So I bailed and decided I'd make my way back north were we had herd most guys were at because the conditions were much better.  So off to Nags Head I went arriving at the Nags Head fishing pier.  There were a bunch of surfers out catching some of the waves, however, the waves were decent size, maybe head high and certainly less chop than further south but they were slow breakers.  Surfers were catching the waves but there wasn't a lot of speed to the waves and I was not getting very good shots.  Then I saw Jacob Capps skimboarding on the north side of the pier.  And from what I saw, he was killing it.  Getting great waves in the shorebreak and even a few barrels from time to time so I headed over and began shooting some shots of him and a friend of his bodyboarding Austin Kissel. 

Below are the photos from the Bertha swell and another page from the Hurricane Cristobal swell to come.

Austin Kissel drop knee on a wave north of the Nags Head Pier.

Austin on a nice right near the shorebreak in Nags Head.

Austin trying to pull into a small barrel in Nags Head during the Bertha swell.

Austin on his way in from a good day catching waves from Bertha.

Jacob Capps on a nice backhand cutback on a chest high shorebreak wave.

Jacob with a nice floater on the lip.

Jacob with another backhand, this time to drop in and get barreled.

Getting in line to get covvered!

Pulling into the shorebreak barrel!

Nice frontside catch in the shorebreak.

Jacob with another right getting ready to get barreled again in the shorebreak.

About to be covered.

Waves starts to break over him while hitting the beach.

And once again, covered in the barrel on the beach!

Another great backhand wave along the Nags Head beach.

Cropped image from above showing his concentration.

Another attempt at a tube on the beach but the waves closed out too quickly.

Jacob with a backhand lip crack to catch some air!

Nice air in the shorebreak.

About to land.

Jacob attempting to pull into another tube on the beach.

Pulling in!

And getting covered!!

Almost completely cover in a great wave in the shorebreak.

The next few images are just closer crops of the images above.

Hard turn on the beach!

More air time in Nags Head!

Jacob studying the waves and the sets waiting for the right wave.

Hard cutback on a nice wave at the Nags Head Pier.

Watching and waiting for the right waves.

Not sure who this is, but he had been out surfing and decided to grab his skimboard where the better action was.

My man Jacob pulling off some insane air in Nags Head